Upholstery construction



Feb. 10, 1942. .1. KRONHEIM I UPHOLSTERY CONSTRUCTION Filed Oct. 25, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet l I N VE NTOR.

JHCUB KROA/HE/W Feb. 10, 1942. J.KRONHE1M 2,272,807

UPHOLSTERY CONSTRUCTION Filed Oct. 25, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1 8 1' JHL'UB KRONHE/l? Patented Feb. 10, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE."

azwaaow g UPHOLSTERY CONSTRUCTION Jacob Kronlieim, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, assignor to John 0. Lincoln, Scottsdale,Ariz.

Application October 25, 1938, Serial-N0. 236,879

8 Claims. (Cl. 155-179) My invention relates in general to improvements in seats and bottoms for upholstered furniture and more particularly to supporting means for one-piece webbing or strip webbing of the seats and bottoms of upholstered furniture.

It is the general object of the invention to provide an upholstered piece of furniture with auxiliary, resilient supporting means for its webbing, which supporting means are of simple construction, insure proper position of the webbing without specific spreader means and return the webbing to proper rest position.

Another object of the invention is to provide an upholstered piece of furniture with resilient auxiliary supporting means for the webbing consisting of fiat, longitudinally tensioned springs of sinuous shape, which springs are supported by and at their ends secured to the rails of the frame of the upholstered piece of furniture.

A further object of the invention is to provide a piece of upholstered furniture with resilient auxiliary supporting means for the webbing consisting in the combination of flat springs of sinuous shape, the front ends of which are secured to the front rail of the frame of the upholstered piece of furniture with yielding bracket means supported on the rear rail of said frame and pivotally engaged with the rear ends of the springs, said springs and brackets being dimensioncd to effect longitudinal tensioning of the springs when pivotally connected with said bracket means.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an upholstered piece of furniture with resilient auxiliary supporting means for its webbing consisting in the combination of flat springs of sinuous shape having integral suspension means at their front ends for suspending same from the front rail of the frame of the upholstered piece of furniture with yielding bracket means supported on the rear rail of said frame and pivotally engaged with the rear ends of the springs, said springs and brackets being dimensibned to effect longitudinal tensioning of the spring when pivotally connected with said bracket means, and said suspending means being related to the front rail and the axis of said springs so as to effect upward bulging stresses in clearly set forth in the following specification and the appended claims; and a preferred form of embodiment of the invention is hereinafter shown with reference to the accompanying drawings forming part of the specification.

In the drawings:

Fig.'1 is a plan view of the seat frame of a piece of upholstered furniture in which the onepiece fabric webbing is additionally supported by yielding auxiliary supporting means consisting of a flat sinuously shaped spring and a yielding bracket. I

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the sinuously shaped flat spring shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary bottom view of the seat frame shown in Fig. 1.

Figs. 5 and 6 are top and sectional views of the washer-like member arranged between the ends of the spring and the webbing.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of the seat frame of a piece of upholstered furniture in which the onepiece fabric webbing is additionally supported by a somewhat modified form of yielding auxiliary supporting means.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the modified fiat spring shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a plan view of the seat frame of a piece of upholstered furniture in which the furniture springs are attached to and supported by 5 strip webbing and, in which another modified form of yielding auxiliary supporting means is used to support the strips of webbing and the furniture springs.

Fig. 10 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view on line Ill-ii) of Fig. 9; and

Fig. 11 is a perspective view of the modified flat spring shown in Fig. 9. I

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, reference numeral 2 represents a substantially rectangular frame embodying a front rail 3, a rear rail 4 and side rails 5, 5. These rails have attached to their bottom faces a one-piece fabric textile webbing 6, such as burlap, which is tensioned over said frame and secured to said rails by tacks 1. The top surface of the onepiece webbing 6 s pports in properly spaced relation a plurality of hour glass shaped springs 8, secured to said webbing in any suitable, manner and tensioned and attachedtogether as customary by tie cords 9. The bottom face of the onepiece webbing 6 is additionally supported by fiat springs III of sinuous shape which are secured to the front and rear rail 3 and 4. For such purpose the front end ll of each spring III has upwardly extended therefrom at an angle slightly larger than 90 an integral suspending arm II. The upper end N of this arm is angularly bent outwardly and shaped to form a u-bend I! in a plane approximately 45 inclined with respect to said arm for a purpose later to be described. The rear end it of spring III is shaped to an eye l1 adapted to engage with the hook-shaped end ll of a yielding bracket or suspension member l9. This bracket member is made 'of steel spring wire so as to possess the desired yielding action and embodies a central coil 20, the ends of which extend forwardly and rearwardly and form at the front end a hook-shaped extension 2| and at the rear end a substantially rectangularly shaped hook portion 22. Extension 2! of bracket member I! extends to substantial alignment with the bottom of coil 20 and has its hook 23 open and curved so as to permit of saidhook being readily entered into the eye II on the rear end of the spring ill for pivotal engagement therewith. Hook portion 22 is shaped to fit the width of the rear rail I of the frame and can readily be hooked upon said rail until the horizontal portion 24 of the hook portion engages the top of said rail. Staples 25 are used for securing the bracket i9 to the said rail.

Mounting of an auxiliary supporting means for the one-piece webbing of a seat frame is effected by first piercing the webbing at the proper place and threading the ends of spring i through the holes so that the sinuously shaped portion of spring ill engages the bottom face of said webbing and the two ends of the spring extend through the webbing above the top face thereof. Then the protruding loop or eye ll at the rear end of spring ill is hooked upon the open end of hook 23 of bracket member IS, the hookshaped portion 22 of which has been previously hooked upon rear rail 4 and rigidly secured thereto by staples 25. Thereafter the spring I0 is tensioned by pulling the upper end of the suspending arm l2 towards the front rail until its U-bend i5 is located above the front rail and finally secured thereto by staples 28.

Preferably, as shown in the drawings, there are arranged between the ends of spring l0 and the webbing 6 washer means 21 which prevent excessive wear of the webbing at these particular points and also eliminate undesirable friction and noise without interfering with proper working of the auxiliary supporting means. These washer means may be formed as round metal washer or as elongated separators of metal, fiber or other suitable material.

In tensioning spring iii in the manner described, said spring is subjected to two stresses: longitudinal stresses and upwardly directed bending or bulging stresses. The co-operation of these stresses causes yielding tensioning and supporting of webbing 6 with a shock absorbing effect against shocks and excessive loads, tending to pull out tacks 1 attaching the webbing 6 to the rails of frame 2.

The yielding supporting and tensioning means for webbing ii described abovematerially imthe yielding action of the spring, then I prefer to use a spring with less sinuous coils or less resiliency. as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. The construction shown in these figures is similar to the structure shown in Figs. 1 to 4 with the exception that the auxiliary supporting means embodies a spring II embodying a central portion 2! with sinuous coils and adjoining straight portions SI,

prove the yielding action of upholstered furniture in a simple and economical manner and permit of construction of strong, properly yielding upbolstered furniture of long life at utmost low cost.

The yielding action and tension of spring III is mostly controlled by the number of coils in its sinuous shape. Should it be desirable to reduce 30'. Action of such a structure is similar to that of the previously described construction.

In Figs. 9, 10 and 11 there are shown auxiliary supporting means for strip webbing. Thus frame 3| of the structure disclosed in these figures has secured to its side rails 32, 32' three strips of webbing 33 secured thereto by nails 34. These strips of webbing are tensioned and supported by three auxiliary supporting means 34'. secured to the front and rear'rail ll, 36 of the frame II. The supporting means engage the webbing strips 33 at the places where the webbing strips mount hour glass springs 81, so that the webbing strips and the auxiliary supporting means both directly mount the hour glass springs 31 and jointly form a yielding base for each of the springs 31. The yielding supporting means embody a sinuouslyshaped spring member 38, the front end of which has upwardly extended therefrom an integral suspension arm 39 forming an acute angle with the sinuously shaped portion 0 of the spring member 38. The upper end of arm 39 embodies rightangularly related thereto a U-shaped extension 4| for attaching the arm 39 to the front rail 35.

Mounting of the auxiliary supporting means shown in Figs. 9, 10 and 11 is effected by first engaging the hook-shaped end 42 of spring member 3! with the book 23 of bracket member It, the hook-shaped portion 22 of which has been previously hooked upon rear rail 38 and secured thereto by staples 25, then tensioning the spring by pulling the lower end of the spring into engagement with the inner face of the front rail and connecting same with the front rail 35 by means of a staple l9. Thereafter the upwardly extended suspension arm I! is forced into contact with the inner face of the front rail and finally the U-shaped extension 4| is secured to the top face of said rail by means of staples 43.

The longitudinal tensioning of spring member 38 and the forcing of its suspension arm 38 into contact with the inner face of the front rail effect longitudinal tensional stresses and upwardly directed bending or bulging stresses in the spring member 38, and the co-operation of these stresses effects tensioning and supporting of the strip webbing in a manner similar to that previously described with respect to the tensioning and supporting of the one-piece webbing structure shown in Figs. 1 through 3.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a seat frame construction for upholstered furniture a frame, a one-piece webbing secured to said frame and auxiliary webbing tensioning and supporting means, said auxiliary means ema flat, corrugated spring member having its ends extended through said webbing and a bracket member secured to said frame and supporting one of the ends of said spring member, said spring member being provided with an integral upwardly extended suspension means at its other end including an attachment end portion inclined with respect to said suspension means, the combined length of said bracket and spring member being lessthan the width of said frame for effecting longitudinal stretching and bending stresses in said spring member when said attachment portion of said suspension means is drawn toward and secured to said frame.

2. A seat frame construction as described in claim 1, wherein the integral suspension means for said spring has an attachment end portion of Ushaped form extending laterally from said suspension means.

3. A seat frame construction as described in claim 1, wherein the spring member embodies a central, corrugated spring portion and straight portions adjacent to said spring portions, wherein one of said straight portions at its end isshaped to an upwardly extending eye and wherein the other one at its end is bent upwardly to form the said suspension means. 7

4. A seat frame construction as described in claim 1, including means intermediate said spring ends and said webbing for preventing frictional contact between said ends and the webbing,

5. In a seat frame construction for upholstered furniture a frame, a one-piece fabric webbing attached to the bottom of the frame, and an auxiliary supporting and tensioning means secured to opposite sides of said frame above said webbing embodying a fiat, corrugated spring member engaging the bottom of said webbing and extended with its end portions therethrough and a bracket member secured to said frame and coupled with one of said end portions, the other one of said end portions being upwardly extended and formed with attachment means inclined with respect to the said upward extension and the combined length of said bracket and said spring member being of less width than said frame.

6. A spring structure for auxiliary webbing tensioning and supporting means comprising a flat, corrugated spring wire member having an upwardly extended eye portion at one end, an upwardly extended substantially straight supporting arm at its other end and integral attachment means at the end of said arm extending upwardly and outwardly therefrom.

'7. In a seat frame construction for upholstered furniture a frame, webbing secured to said frame, and auxiliary webbing tensioning and supporting means secured to said frame, said means including a sinuously shaped, longitudinally tensioned spring member provided with an upwardly extended suspension means integrally extended from said spring member, said suspension means being forcibly tilted toward said frame and with its upper portion attached thereto.

8. In a seat frame construction for upholstered furniture a frame, webbing secured to said frame, and auxiliary webbing tensioning and supporting means secured to said frame, one end of said supporting means being yieldingly attached to said frame by a yielding member, and the other end of said supporting means being attached to said frame by extension means integrally and upwardly extended from said tensioning and supporting means, said extension means being forcibly tilted toward said frame and attached thereto.

JACOB KRONHEIM. 

